Notes/ I was asked if I would have an update ready and posted in time for Christmas. And really I tried to. Unfortunately with it being the holiday season and work at it's busiest for the year because of it, I just couldn't quite make it happen. I hope though that everyone had a wonderful holiday.
"So then happened?" Switchblade asked, excited. She bounced a little on the fronts of her feet as younglings seemed to do, paused in her steps, and looked up, waiting to hear the answer.
"What do ya think happened?" Bulkhead said back, laughing. "We kicked all twenty-seven of their..." he paused then, dangerously close to having dropped some language probably far from suitable for a youngling. So instead he just chuckled a little, shook his head once, and mumbled, grinning, "I kicked their... err... rear ends."
"That'd teach those troopers not to mess with you again!" Switchblade exclaimed. She walked on again, running a slight ways ahead of him. And turning to walk backwards for a second, she swung her one remaining arm around in front of her and to one side excitedly. "They got wrecked, Bulk'!"
"That they sure did," Bulkhead answered, nodding just a little. "Might not have been so lucky though if Miko had never shown up to help..."
"Thanks for takin' me back off the ward again," Switchblade said. She looked up, grinning and obviously just as grateful as ever to be away from there a while.
"No problem," Bulkhead answered, grinning right back.
He'd been to the youngling ward almost every day over the past few weeks to see the little youngling bot. Mostly he'd sit with her a while just chatting in the playroom. And sometimes Turbo would join them a while, happy as any youngling to hear good (if not sometimes exaggerated) Autobot war stories. Sometimes though he would take her off the ward with him, with full permission from Knockout of course. And they'd walk through the base, or a short ways outside for a while. Those short off-ward trips had grown increasingly common, as her condition improved with each day that passed. And the little bot was always just as happy as she'd been the last time, just to go anywhere at all.
"Where we going?" Switchblade questioned, her tone curious and a smile on her face-plate, as the passed by Ratchet's workshop, and the open doors of a few new empty living spaces. And bulkhead just shook his head a second, before he gave a little shrug.
"I dunno yet," he answered honestly, because indeed he really have no plan in mind. "We're just kinda walkin.'"
"You do that a lot? Just kinda walk to nowhere?"
"Hmm... sometimes, I guess. You good to keep walking?"
"I'm good, Bulk."
"Not getting tired out?"
"Nope."
"High five, kid," Bulkhead said, suddenly. He held up a hand, and leaned forward a fair bit so that the small youngling could reach it that way.
Grinning, the little reached up just as high as she possibly could with her remaining arm. And jumping just a little into the air, she managed to smack the front of his big hand with the front of her much smaller one. She giggled a little at the metallic tinging noise that made.
"Low five," Bulk said, just a second later. He held the same one of his hands lower then, well without her easy reach. But he chuckled and then laughed loudly, pulling his hand away quickly before she could hit it.
"Too slow!" he joked, earning a laughing mock-pout from the youngling, who tried again and this time succeeded.
"Gimme... ten," Bulkhead said then, thinking quickly, and just having fun. He held both of his hands out at one, in front of him, palms up. And he grinned.
"Completely not fair, Bulk'" Switchblade said at once. She was not upset, but she did appear to think a moment. "I've one got one..."
Finally she smacked one of his hands lightly, before she immediately did the same to the other, using her one hand for both.
"Five and five is ten!" she declared, smartly. And a grin spread across her face-plate, as she started to walk again.
"Any word yet on the progress of that arm that's being made for you?" Bulkhead questioned, curious then as she walked on right beside her again. He knew well that the little bot was well involved in her own medical progress, because Knockout fully believed his young patients had every right to understand things that concerned them directly far more than anyone.
"It's built," the youngling bot said at once. And she grinned again, obviously excited by the news she shared. "It's pretty neat too... almost exactly like my old unsavable one. Knockout showed it to me yesterday because I asked if I could see. I guess I go for repair work soon... Just as soon as my nanite counts go just a little higher."
"Did I ever tell much you about my human friend Miko?" Bulkhead asked, changing the subject so drastically because, even though he had asked in the first place, he found himself suddenly uneasy with conversing about medical procedures. And he found himself strangely chuckling at his own question.
"Knockout talks about that same human sometimes," the little bot said. "Your human partner, from so many of the stories you like tellin',"
"Makes sense," Bulk' said with a shrug of his own and a slight smile on his face-plate. He turned to the right when the corridor intersected with another up in front of him. "She was 'his human' too eventually, almost as much as she was mine. She's back in America now... that's across the planet from her home. She's playin' her music to any agent that will listen for a minute, got a day job fixin' up old electronics. You remind me of her ya know?"
"That's crazy Bulk'!" Switchblade exclaimed, laughing hard as she trotted behind him. She caught up quickly, her short little youngling legs running to do so. And when she did, she stopped again in front of him, pausing to look up, her expression baffled. "How can I remind you of some... human? I'm a bot, you know!"
"The humans aren't so different from us, little bot," Bulkhead said shrugging again. And he laughed a little at that, remembering that he had once been shocked to discover that fact from himself. "She's older than you are of course, at least in human terms. But if she'd been Cybertronian, I'm pretty sure she'd be a lot like you."
"Bulkhead?"
"Yes?"
"I think you must have been exaggerating just little... there's nooo way it was twenty-seven troopers!"
"You got me, kid," Bulkhead said, laughing a little. He lowered his head and made a slight show of pretending to appear mildly ashamed of himself. "It was more like six. But they were all very fast moving hard hitters."
"Bulkhead?"
"Yes?"
"You look... different!"
"Different?" Bulkhead just shrugged at the youngling, who trotted on along beside him.
"Yeah..." Switchblade studied him a moment, looking him up and down, clearly determined to place exactly what it was that she thought looked so different in the first place. Finally she paused in both her gazing and her steps, and raised her one hand, excited to have clearly' worked it out. "Bulk! You've buffed your finish I think. Plus a new coat of wax!"
"Ha. Yeah I s'pose I did." Bulkhead simply shrugged again. "I've got a party to go to tonight. Figured maybe I oughta look decent."
"A party?" The little bot's optics lit up with clear curiosity then.
"A little get together here on base. For a... well sort of a friend of mine now I guess. He's going to join the Autobots soon. The day after tomorrow I think. Arcee wants a gathering and it's a good excuse to have one I s'pose..."
"An Autobot gathering..." The youngling's tone was one of wonder and amazement now as she took a step and kept on walking again, Bulkhead right behind her. "That must be so much fun... Earth music. New bots to meet..."
"You can come if you want to," Bulkhead answered. Because he was sure Knockout wouldn't mind, as long as it was run by him first in order to okay it.
"Really?" The little bot stopped walking again, and just stared up at him with a look somewhere between a grin and the expression of a youngling afraid to believe she'd gotten what she really wanted.
"Sure," Bulk' told him, smiling right back, while he walked on again and waited for her to, sure enough, follow him immediately. "There will be other youngling bots there too. Parties are not for grown bots after all. Arcee and Knockout's little bot will be there. And you remember the med student, Bumblebee? He's got a bondmate of his own... and they have kids too."
Their aimless walking too them to the lift, leading to the basement level of the old base. And they got on at once, riding down because it seemed to both, just as good a place to wander next as any.
"I've decided I don't wanna be 'Switchblade' anymore," the youngling mused out loud, a moment after the two bots had left the lift and walked on again. The common was a strange one, and quite out of nowhere at all. And it made Bulkhead pause a second in mid-step so that he could look down at the tiny youngling, baffled.
"You... need to have a name," he said, perhaps quite ridiculously stating the obvious. "What would you be called then if you weren't Switchblade?"
"Switchgear!" the youngling declared at once. And it was obviously in that, that despite the seemingly sudden randomness of her comment, she really had been thinking it over for a while already.
"It's still close enough to the name I have now... the one Scrapheap picked for me," she quickly explained. "But it's different too! More about speed and horse power, and less... weaponish. And Cybertronians charge their names all the time. It's not like I'd be very first to want to..."
"Switchgear is a pretty decent name," Bulkhead said, smiling. "And you're certain right about not being the first to pick a new one..."
They walked on in silence for a while again, each just thinking their own thoughts. And their walking had led them finally to the doors of the training gym. Bulkhead stood still, letting them slide open, before he wandered idly inside. And just as idly, he gave a few good hard hits to his favoured heavy punching bag, mounted firmly to the ceiling. He chuckled a little, as one hard blow made it swing wide, away from him. And when it returned, he hit it again just as hard with the other fist.
"That's pretty good," Switchblade said, her tone impressed.
She stood back a safe distance just watching a moment while Bulkhead hit the bag. But suddenly she began to move fast, running toward the other, slightly lower and lighter one a short ways away. Her feet left the floor quickly, in a good jumping kick, and her right foot impacted firmly with the bag, before her one had followed quickly. She'd landed perfectly back on both feet, and quickly jumped to kick the bag again, before she spun around slightly and paused with her destroyed right arm facing toward it. Not a second later though she turned a little back the other way, hit it three times fast with her left, jumped up to kick at again and faced right before she turned again, her processor so clearly struggling just a little to compensate instinctively for the damage to her body.
"That's... impressive..." Bulkhead said, in baffled reaction.
He knew that younglings could certainly punch and kick. Of course they could. He'd certainly witnessed 'play fights' between pairs and groups of them more than once in his life. He was sure as anything in fact, he must have played the same same way when he was one himself. But Switchblade was not just a youngling simply messing around. This tiny youngling bot could surely do a bit of real damage to someone, even with only one arm. And she could do so, because someone had taught her how to do exactly that.
"You be... careful," Bulkhead warned cautiously, never forgetting she still had recovering to do to.
"Where'd you learn to kick and punch like that anyway?" he asked a moment later, having watched her hit the bag a few times and kick it once more with slightly more caution to her movements.
"Scrapheap used to pick on me all the time when he was mad... and he was almost always mad about something..." Switchblade said. She may have been impressive in her moves, for a youngling so small. But still she was small. And she never had made the bag swing all that much by simply hitting and kicking it even as hard as she could. She backed up from it then, and it was only a second before the very slight swing she'd managed to cause it, stopped on it's own. "He'd spill his drink while I was playing, and he'd stomp hard across the room to kick me to the floor because he said I must have bumped the table. Stuff like that. But he was a pit fighter once, ra-memeber. And he'd still train all the time, downstairs in the basement. I used to sit on the stairs and watch because at first I just thought it was pretty neat. One day, he smacked me in the head, so I hit him back, just like I'd watched him hit his punching bag." The youngling shrugged again, her expression almost a little too proud, to hide just as obviously sadness. "He started teaching me after that. Said maybe I'd be good at something after all..."
"Do you like doin' such training?" Bulk' asked, his voice a mix of curiosity and concern. And he watched the little bot appear to think hard a moment.
"It's kinda fun sometimes," she answered slowly. Her tone unsure and completely noncommittal. "Sometimes I think I just liked it so much because I liked being good at something. Besides, my creator was nicer to me while we trained together and he taught me new moves. He told me 'nice job' once in a while... instead of just callin' me stupid... I'm off balance a bit now though, prob'ly because of..." She looked a second at whatever was left of her destroyed arm, wrapped up in it''s bindings against her frame
"I don't think I like your creator very much," Bulkhead mumbled, meaning it entirely. But he looked down a second later at the youngling now standing at his side again, and shook his head a little. "I hope it doesn't bother you that I don't..."
"Most bot don't like my creator much really," the little bot replied, her tone strangely understanding for a bot that young. "Of course they don't. He's loud. He's usually mean. Ratchet says he's nothing but a first rate bully. And I guess his friends would be then too. Those bots are just a bunch of... meanies!"
Bulkhead nodded slowly, in understanding and agreement. Because a decent amount of the recent chaos in the city had been traced back to Scrapheap and his small group of needlessly far too violent 'friends.' Two of those bots sat in cells already for their part in the downtown explosion in which Firestorm had been injured. Another three had been questioned for repeat bar fights that spilled out into the street. And still one more was jailed for breaking into somebot's apartment, attacking the bot just minding his own business inside, and sending him to the hospital injured.
"Bulkhead..." Switchblade said, pulling the big bot from his reflecting at once. Her small hand tugged at his urgently, and her pair of bright blue optics looked at at his. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Sure I can," Bulk' chuckled right back. He knew he certainly could. He'd kept plenty for Miko.
"Can I tell you one then?" the little bot asked. And she tugged again on his hand, harder now, until he took a hint and kneeled down to be at her own level.
"Uhh... okay," Bulk' said, chuckling a little more.
"I wish you were my creator," Switchblade told him. And her voice was serious, as she looked at him, sadly and smiling.
"M...me?"
"Yep," the youngling said. Her tone was strangely finally in that simple answer. But she slowly spoke again, explaining. "You would have been good at it, Bulk'. You tell me stories, and make me laugh. And you care about me too. You always come to visit me... you always make time to, even though I know you're busy building housing. You never make fun of me, or yell at me just for crying. I bet I could call you anytime when I'm supposed to be recharging, if I got scared or I needed help, or I was lonely. You once called me a decent kid and..."
"Well sure you can call me, little bot," Bulkhead said, smiling at her just a little. "You have my comm-code I think..." He was about to say a little more, to repeat the code to her in case she had forgotten it. But he saw the small tears then, forming at the sides of both of her optics. And slowly a couple of them escaped down her green face-plate, as she climbed onto his knees.
"You'll find a family, little bot," Bulkhead said, because he had no idea at all what else he could say. "Any day now the applications will be coming in from bots ready to fight over you, because any of them would be lucky to have you in their lives."
"I sure hope you're right about that, Bulk'," the youngling answered. And she smiled then just a little, a tiny hint of a hopeful smile.
"Come on, Switch," Bulkhead answered, changing the subject quickly with a laugh, and grin on his face-plate. "We've got a party to get you all buffed and shiny for."
"We should get going back inside," Firestorm said, with a smile on her face-plate. She looked up from her place on the ground, at the edge of the courtyard outside the base – which she was happily sitting on completely by choice, despite the fact that a perfectly comfortable bench sat not a metre away from her.
Sitting in front of her, on that bench, Soundwave lowed his head a little, sure it did little at all to hide his anxiety, at least from her.
"I am still... uncertain I should go..."
"It's a party for you!" Firestorm exclaimed. She got to her feet in a few just slightly awkward and struggling motions, before walking as fast as she could around to the back of the bench. And playfully, she shoved him once lightly from behind."Of course you should go. You need to go!"
"It's not a huge gathering or anything," she reminded him, in the very next second. "Just the team we all both know, a few more Autobots and any friends they wanted to invite... I can't see it being more than twenty bots there."
"Gathering – unnecessary," Soundwave muttered. But he got to his feet slowly, after she'd moved to shove him again, just as lightly as before
"The Autobots, it seems do love a good get-together and any good excuse to have one," Firestorm answered grinning. And she quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him froward a couple of steps. "You should know well how it all works. You're going to be one of them soon."
Himself - an Autobot. To Soundwave the idea sounded so strange, even silently inside his own processor. It went against anything and everything he'd believed in and ever thought he'd wanted, until still recently. But now, it was a thing he wanted more than anything, and that idea unnerved him just a little. Still, he wanted what he wanted, and he would not give up on himself and his true ambition. Not now... not ever again.
"I've been thinking a bit lately about my brother," Firestorm said suddenly, interrupting his thoughts. "What he might have thought of... well of everything really. Just how far the city has come. Of you. Of.. us..."
"I have doubts Windstorm would have liked very much about the idea of us," Soundwave mused, considering and suddenly at least slightly saddened. But Firestorm just smiled in response.
"I don't know about that," she said. "He was way too protective of me most of the time. Stopped me from trying. Stopped me from really... living... just so I would never be hurt, or fail, or be sad, or even laughed at. But he loved me so much. He gave up so much just to care for me himself when clearly no one else would. And he did it all without any help from anyone..." She swung her hand back and forth a little as she walked, taking Soundwave's with it. And she smiled a wistful little smile as she went right on musing out loud. "His biggest fear for me though seemed to be that I'd never find love of my own. I overheard him talking more than once with good friends of his about that very thing. Windstorm would have been shocked by you at first. I don't doubt that for a second. I doubt very much he would have understood, why you of any bot. But I think he'd be okay... He believed in second chances. And for him to have known you're going to be an Autobot..."
The reached the side doors of the base quickly. And Firestorm pulled Soundwave inside, laughing, just as soon as they had slid open, to let them enter. She pulled him forward after her while she began walking faster. She still stumbled a little, and her steps were slightly unlike those of other bots, and walking faster only made both of those things slightly more obvious. But she was walking well, and Soundwave knew she could have run is she'd wanted to. He smiled a little behind his face-shield at just seeing her so steady when once it had seemed impossible. And he would have smiled longer but the damage to his face-plate made it too hard for him to hold a smile for long at once.
The common room, far less used by now, was fully in use that evening. It was filled with bots when the pair arrived. Conversation filled the room, music played somewhere in the background, and containers filled with various colours of flavoured energon clinked lightly on tables, as bots drank happily while they interacted. Soundwave stood stiffly in the doorway, just watching as bots, many of them his soon to be faction-mates, all chatted easily with one another with their backs turned, and not appearing to notice him.
"Daddy," cried Arcee and Knockout's youngling, Cybershock somewhere clear across the room. And she grabbed both of Knockout's hands as the music track changed to one much faster than then one before it. "Dance with me, dance with me!"
Soundwave heard himself laugh a little, as he watched Knockout - sitting on his mobility cart with his seat belt over his lap – hold the little bot's hands, pulling her arms one way then the other in time to the beat, while she did her best at some clearly out of time 'dance moves' with her feet on the floor. Firestorm laughed too, and looking over, Soundwave saw her smile, just watching the silly youngling having fun with her creator.
"Soundwave! Firestorm!" Arcee said, appearing close to the doorway, gesturing with a waving hand and smiling. "Come in here, will you."
Firestorm was walking forward at once. And Arcee pulled her excitedly into the common room by the hand. But Soundwave found himself lagging behind a ways, on edge and looking around the place, glad for the covering that hid his nervous face-plate. He had been inside the common room many times of course. But now it was crowded with bots in their various conversations. And unconsciously he pulled his arms in closer against his body, determined to avoid bumping against anyone in a room just a bit small for such a party.
Arcee offered him a container of coloured, and obviously well flavoured energon at once. And despite smelling a hint of cobalt and copper, and remembering that he enjoyed both of those flavors, he shook his head a little, waving her and the offer off with a gesture of his hand. And he hoped only a second later when it occurred to him to think of it, that his behaviour had not been taken as rude.
Soundwave turned slightly and nearly bumped into a small framed silver and orange femme he knew was Bumblebee's bondmate, and a close friend of Firestorm. Speedbreaker. He found the name finally in his processor, recalling that he'd heard it at least a few times since defecting. He had scared her nearly half way to off-lining once when they had first encountered each other. But she was long over it by now. And she nodded politely to him in greeting, a newborn in each of her arms, while her first youngling, Hotwire, peeked out from his place hidden behind her legs, with shy uncertainty clear on his small silver face-plate
"Hotwire, say hello to Soundwave," Speedbreaker urged the small bot, chuckling in her encouragement to the youngling to be friendly and polite.
"It isn't you," Speedbreaker said, her tone apologetic where she would once have been nothing but nervous herself. "He's like this with anyone until he really gets to know them."
"Bumblebee and Ratchet both send their greetings," she continued on, shifting one wide awake and lightly fussing youngling held by her left arm without waking up the recharging twin in her right. They had an emergency tonight but both say they might make it late."
"Soundwave!" a bot exclaimed, somewhere close behind him. And Smokescreen, the bot who it was obvious in just a second, had spoken, smacked him hard against the back of the shoulder panel without any warning at all. "Welcome to the Autobots!"
"Thank... you..." Soundwave mumbled, forcing himself to sound both calm and polite, despite the physical jostling from a bot who should have known well not to touch his body armour.
"Soundwave, do you recall my small human friend called Miko?" Knockout's voice asked from the other direction. And Soundwave nodded absently in response to the out of place and random seeming question, before he turned around to see his teammate now parked close to him on the cart, his youngling now sitting happily on his knees.
"She called it first you know?" Knockout explained, smiling a smiling that still seemed somehow strange on his face-plate in place of his old well known arrogant smirk of times now gone by. He reached out with one hand extended, but at least he was more than good enough not to let his hand touch Soundwave's frame at all. "She told me you'd be an Autobot one day."
"Are you going to wear a faction Symbol?" Cybershock asked, still perched grinning on her creator's lap, balanced somewhat precariously on his bent knees while her hands waved about in her excited chattering. "Do you know where you want to have it put yet? Have you decided? You'll be a great Autobot, even if there isn't a war to fight anymore. Mama says it's just symbolic now. But I think that makes it even cooler to wanna be one!"
"Cybershock, please let him answer one question at a time," Arcee told the youngling, laughing a little close by. She snatched up the wide awake newborn from Speedbreaker's arms then, with a grin on her face-plate. "You aren't giving him even a second to think!"
"She is... just... excited..." Soundwave answered slowly, because he was pretty sure he understood the youngling bot's emotions.
"Hotwire!" the youngling called Cybershock called out then, speaking, it seemed, to the silver and yellow youngling still hiding somewhere behind Speedbreaker's knees nearby. She slid down easily from her creator's lap, and ran to stand beside him in under a second. "Come on. Let's go get energon jelly snacks! My Mama made them, and hers are always the bestest!"
"You'll always be among her greatest heroes now, you know," Arcee said, looking back in Soundwave's direction, while her hand gestured toward her now fast retreating youngling, running across the common room with her playmate.
"You, along with that predacon, saved her life," she explained, when Soundwave just looked at her, almost overwhelmed, though hidden optics. She took a small step closer to him. And for a second it seemed she might just take hold of his arm, in a gesture most bots would take as friendship. But she didn't and instead just stood, pausing with her hand extended a short ways from him, looking at him with serious optics. "It's just as hard for me now to wrap my head around as it was the night all that happened. But she really would not likely still be with us now, if you hadn't jumped in to help her without a thought for yourself." Arcee smiled then. "That was the night we all knew without any doubt at all, that former 'con you used to be was really dead and gone forever. It will always be my lifelong honour to stand in service to the Autobot faction, beside a bot that saved the spark of my own child."
"I am simply relieved to see that she is clearly alright," Soundwave answered. His emotionally overwhelmed state was worsening by the moment, and he wondered then how, if at all, he would soon successfully complete his Autobot commitment vows.
He was glad then to remember that Knockout, who had always felt his own commitment was never fully official enough because of unfortunate circumstance, would repeat his own soon after – thus taking some of the attention away from Soundwave, who panicked with the very thought of being too close to the centre of it.
"Both in body and in processor and spark," he added, slowly. And he smiled, behind his face-shield, toward youngling of current discussion, now busy across the room, along side her small friend, scanning a table filled with treats.
"She got over it all so quickly," Arcee said, smiling just a moment more, before she stood shaking her head slowly. "Far more so than me. She's not even having nightmares anymore. I haven't recharged straight through one whole night yet."
"It all just takes time, Arcee," Knockout told his mate. He smiled at her and she smiled right back. And the look of silent unspoken love and understanding pair quickly exchanged, reminded Soundwave at once of the way Firestorm so often seemed to look at him. He was, now that he thought about it, certain he more than likely looked right back at her in much the same way.
"'Bout high time the two of you finally got in here," Wheeljack declared, speaking obviously to both Soundwave and to Firestorm, and just as obviously doing so in a light-sparked and joking manner. He stood arm in arm with some unknown lightish blue painted mini-bot, who judging by the lack of any faction symbols on his simply body work, was clearly from among the refugees. And he looked at up at Soundwave, his optics focused quickly on his darkened face-shield, staring with the look of a bot who couldn't exactly help but do so. And Soundwave just looked down toward the floor, uneasy.
Wheeljack was the second bot at the party to smack Soundwave, however well meaning it may have been, across the shoulder panel like he did his other teammates all the time. And just as soon as he'd done so, he grabbed at the still staring refugee with his other arm, with a loud laugh. Both of them stumbled just a little then, making it more than clear by then, that both of them were at least slightly drunk. "Autobot means more than just a faction in war, my friend. It'll always mean something to us and society. Welcome aboard!"
"Thank you," Soundwave managed to reply, slightly more clearly than the last time he'd done so to Smokescreen. But he did make a point of backing up a good pace, out of range of the wrecker's reach, far from trusting he would not cheerfully smack him again.
Soundwave turned around partway, looking slowly around the room again, when the conversation had died out. And this time he caught sight of Bulkhead, who sat in a corner at the back of the room, on a bench that sat against the wall. And he talked intently with some other still unknown dull green youngling, who judging by the metallic wrappings that held an arm tight against the side of her frame, had obviously been damaged. Soundwave shuddered a second inwardly, just watching the youngling on the bench. Because she reminded him of the countless many injured, often horribly in countless war zones on Cybertron for centuries. He'd made such damage happen, and he'd done it once than once.
But this little bot was not a causality of war. He reminded himself of that in under a second, pushed away his threatening despair and watched her as she smiled, kicking her feet attached too legs to short for her to touch the floor, while Bulkhead pointed gestured around the room, obviously explaining to her who his friends were and how he knew who.
"That little one is Switchblade," Arcee said. She moved so that she stood beside Soundwave again. And with a causal wave of her hand, she motioned toward the youngling bot on the bench, while she chuckled a little. "She's one of Knockout's patients. And she and Bulk' seem to have formed quite the friendship. It's frankly quite fragging adorable."
"She is Scrapheap's youngling?" Soundwave questioned, seeking confirmation, because he reasoned he was right. "The one he dared to walk away from..."
His anger returned to him at once, just as strong as the night he'd confronted Scrapheap in the hallway. And he looked down at the floor, trying hard to force it away. Arcee was angry too. He saw it on her face-plate. And he saw her frame tense just a little, before he hid her own anger behind a fast intake and small smile.
"She is, yes," the Autobot answered slowly. And she smiled brighter then in the small youngling's direction clear across the room. Knockout joined her again, a small fuel container now in the hand he was not using to drive the mobility cart. And Arcee handed Speedbreaker's newborn off to him just as soon as he'd stopped rolling forward, settling the baby bot onto his lap with a grin on her face-plate.
Bulkhead had began to dance by then, in time to the music that was playing. Or at least he tried to – horribly – with the green youngling standing on his feet. The little bot tried so clearly hard, to hold her balance that way, with her one remaining tiny hand holding his big green lower arm. And Bulkhead held her up easily with one of his hands behind her. The youngling with grinning. Bulkhead was laughing. And even when he clearly missed a step, and then three more... and nearly knocked over a speaker stand by tripping over it, the laughter and the smiles never stopped.
"Just look at her now," Arcee continued on, laughing a little herself while she gestured toward the youngling bot. "Scrapheap rejected her because she's 'defective' now, at least in his optics. But she's so smart and charming.. and just plain wonderful. She's Knockout's princess of the youngling ward, and Bulkhead's very small new friend. Whoever takes her home one day soon, to raise her as their own... they owe Scrapheap some thanks in a way, because he gave them a wonderful gift he was never close to good enough to have in the first place..."
"Try some of this stuff," Smokescreen offered, appearing again from somewhere in the small crowd of bots, and interrupting, probably without realizing he'd done so. He held two containers of bright coloured energon, balanced awkwardly in his right hand, as well as one slightly less full one – presumably his own – in his left.
"Wheeljack's all too famous high grade home brew," he explained, laughing a little too much, offering out the small containers to Firestorm and Soundwave.
Firestorm slowly took her offered container, and took a slightly hesitant sip from it. And from the look of indecision that appeared on her face-plate, it was clear at once that she was unsure if she liked the stuff or not. Soundwave though just looked at the small container still held in his soon-to be faction-mate's outstretched hand. And finally, after a moment, he just shook his head in what he hoped would be understood as polite refusal. But the young Autobot just laughed, grinned, and shoved he container into his hand anyway, before he turned to walk away again back into the crowd.
"It isn't half bad," Firestorm said, taking another small sip, and pulling somewhat of a face over it. "Well... sort of... maybe..."
"On the subject of that lovely little bot," Arcee said, her one of simply musing out loud, as she looked across the room at the youngling in question, still dancing with Bulkhead while standing on his big green feet. "I think I'll go and chat with her a moment."
The Autobot walked away quickly then, smiling happily all the while. And when she was gone, Firestorm took Soundwave gently by the hand and led him toward a bench against the side wall of the common room.
"Let's hide out over here for a second," she said, dropping playfully onto the bench. And Soundwave, nodding gratefully, sat down beside her.
He dared to remove his face-shield then, considering for a moment, finally deciding to trust that most bots would not be offended. Others, he reasoned, letting himself laugh just a little, were quickly becoming too intoxicated to have much chance of noticing at all. He released Laserbeak as well, from her place still docked against his front panel, because he'd sensed not long before, that she was clearly awake, and curious to see for herself exactly where they were.
The bird flew straight to his shoulder panel at once. And Soundwave, patting her wings slowly in greeting, chanced a sip from his own container, that had been shoved into his hand. And strangely, he found himself laughing just a little more as he took another much smaller sip.
"No worse then the near toxic substance brewed by Decepticons in wartime," he said. "And certainly far more desirable than that made by combatants in the fighters' dormitories of pre-war Kaon..."
"Are you sure this stuff is safe?" Firestorm questioned. And it was clear in in the tone of her voice that her question was perhaps only half way meant with humour.
"Only in small enough..." Soundwave started to reply, uncertain if he wanted even one more sip from his container
But small feet, moving at close to a slow running pace, toward him across the floor, made him pause at once to look for their source.
"Are you okay?" Tiny Cybershock questioned. She stopped running and stayed standing a moment, looking up and Soundwave, while he sat up straight on the bench.
"Yes," Soundwave answered. He let himself smile just as much as he could. And he saw the little bot smile bright back.
"Just hiding from the crowd?" The youngling questioned. She reached up as high as she could, obviously trying her hardest to pet Laserbeak, who sat perched still far out of her reach. The bird, after some seconds hesitation, obliged her by hopping down to the back on the bench to finally be patted by the youngling, on the top of her head.
"Yes," Soundwave answered her, quietly.
"I hope I'm not being an... an annoyance then..."
"No."
"Try a jelly snack," Cybershock said, holding out two of the little treats, she'd carried over carefully with her left hand, pausing until Firestorm and Soundwave both took them from her. "My mama made 'em. She's so good at it. She always gets 'em so... wiggly!"
Soundwave stared a moment at the strange thing he held, still wrapped in plastic film, in his hand. A strange, light purplish energon sweet, somewhere between a solid and a liquid, speckled with yellow sulphur dust. And sure enough it wiggled and jiggled as he simply moved to unwrap it.
"Inform your carrier that it certainly is interesting," Soundwave said slowly, smiling again just a little, after he'd dared to put the strange snack onto his mouth.
"I really meant it you know..." Cybershock said, after only a second. And she grinned a huge grin. "You really will make a great Autobot."
"I am..." Soundwave answered, about to tell her he was grateful for her faith in him. But Cybershock, to his great shock and dismay, jumped up at once to climb right into his lap, before he could even react. And he was still shocked and speechless, moved and shaken, when she moved just as quickly to hug him – her little arms wrapped tight around his upper frame and her face-plate tight against the much bigger bot's shoulder panel.
"Cybershock... I..." Soundwave muttered, barely finding his voice through his dismay.
He tried hard to explain that her actions were foreign to him... strange and almost terrifying, though he understood she didn't mean it to be so. He tried just as hard, to tell her that few bots ever made physical contact with him at all... and simple shoulder smacks and handshakes made him nervous. But he couldn't explain that in words, because sensible language was quickly failing him again. And just a second later, he didn't want to explain it at all anyway. Instead he just hugged her right back, wrapping his arms as gently as he could around the youngling's tiny frame, sure it must have looked strange and awkward, through still trying his best. The little bot settled then onto his lap, letting go of him but still clearly determined to stay where she was. Her little feet kicked just a little, over the side of Soundwave's knees, as she happily unwrapped another jelly treat she'd fetched from her storage compartment, and ate it, without any obvious care in the world.
"What?" The youngling exclaimed a short second later, shrugging almost comically, with a mouth still filled with jellied energon, when Knockout rolled close to them, still belted into the seat of his mobility cart.
Knockout was obviously about to say something. And the look on his face-plate was one of clear dread and apology for what his youngling had done. And he rolled forward for just a second at a slightly faster speed, making it clear with his outreached right arm, that his every intention was to scoop the youngling bot up from Soundwave's lap, to carry her away again, on his own. But then he paused in his tracks, shook his head just a little and laughed. He gave a smile then, one that showed without any words at all, that he understood just much his own small youngling had bridged a once close to unbridgeable gap. And he just turned and moved to roll away again, still laughing.
"And yes, I'll tell her for you," Cybershock said, looking Soundwave right in the optics as her creator retreated back into the crowd.
Soundwave, far from good with conversation, and used to conversing with younglings far less still, just looked at her for a long moment, confused. And he must have looked strange, at least to that youngling bot, in his baffled and hopeless expression. Because she giggled a little, still looking right at him.
"I'll tell my Mama for you that you the jelly treats are certainly interesting," Cybershock explained, after another moment and another small and cheerful laughing giggle.
She was gone a second after that, leaping suddenly down from his lap in one easy fast motion, before she ran off quickly into the small crowd of bots, that had come to mill about mostly closer to the centre of the room. She'd found her carrier in no time at all. And she pulled urgently at her arm from behind, obviously seeking some attention, until Arcee turned smiling, and the two began talking, wandering further away.
"How are you now, honestly?" Firestorm questioned. She wiggled closer on the the bench, took Soundwave's hand instantly in both of her own as she so loved to do, and shifted still closer to rest her head against the side of his body.
"I am alright," Soundwave answered, considering for just a short moment. He decided he really did mean it. "Tonight is... interesting."
"Cybershock was not a bit too much?"
"No."
Firestorm gave a sudden burst of laughter then. And she lifted her head again, to look up at him, exclaiming, "I thought for about a second, Knockout was going to offline because of his own creation, for doing that!"
"Her strange boldness was... unexpected," Soundwave mused out loud in reply. He may not have known a thing about younglings, but it seemed strange, even to him, for one to be that outgoing and confidant in her interactions with a bot she was only beginning to know at all.
"It's just like Arcee said," Firestorm reminded him, smiling bright as ever. "Like it or not, you've got hero status to that kid now..."
The music, still playing away somewhere unseen, had changed again a moment before to another fast and cheerful upbeat track. And sitting silently again, Soundwave watched as bots simply had a decent time enjoying the music they all seemed to love. Knockout did his very best to 'dance' with Arcee. And strangely it seemed he could in his own way – holding her hands in his from his seated position on his cart, as they swung their arms happily in time to the song's complex beat, while she stood still on the floor. Arcee steeped forward then, after a moment of this, and sat quickly on her mate's knee's much like their own youngling often did, while he sent the cart into a couple fast spins in one place, with his hand on the control, before she jumped right off and took his hands again. Still close beside him, Soundwave heard Firestorm laugh out loud, watching them too. And he gave a good laugh himself, at his teammates clearly just having fun.
And nearby, Cybershock and Hotwire were doing their best to dance as well. Neither one had any clear sense of timing in the least. And both tiny bots just jumped and lifted their and waved and their arms at random with smiles on their face-plates. Switchblade wandered over to them slowly, her hesitation more than obvious at once. And Cybershock turned around immediately, inviting the third youngling to join in with a motion of her hand.
"I am glad you convinced me to come tonight," Soundwave said. And he smiled for a second, glad entirely that she had not let him miss his own party, as he'd wished to do at first.
"Do you perhaps have a few good dance moves?" Firestorm asked, smiling back. She laughed a little, and surely she was joking. Soundwave, to his own surprise, laughed loudly in reply to that, shaking his head wordlessly like he'd watched many others do so often, as he reflected to himself that the very idea was ridiculous.
"I certainly cannot dance" he said, not smiling anymore only because he could still not seem to make his badly damaged face-plate do that for long at once. "I would never tell you though of course that you cannot dance with anyone else."
"I don't dance either," Firestorm said, shaking her head just a little and looking suddenly just a little sad. "My processor... the balance issues... How could I have ever learned?" she smiled then though after just a second, looking back toward the others. "Let's both just watch instead."
"Babies!" she suddenly exclaimed just a moment later, when Speedbreaker made her way toward the pair, now carrying both of her yellow and orange newborn twins in her arms again. She got to her feet, with a grin on her face-plate, and eagerly took her turn at holding a tiny newborn in her arms, bouncing the tiny bot just a little, causing him to giggle and whir with a sound so clearly content.
"They just get cuter every time I see them," Firestorm said, still grinning at the baby. "This little guy is always so curious and happy."
"Would you like to hold his sister for a moment?" Speedbeaker said, still standing nearby. And Soundwave startled for a second, blinking in dismayed surprise to realize after a long clueless moment that the orange and silver bot was talking to him.
"Can... I...?" Soundwave questioned back, slowly and hesitant. Because strange as the idea seemed to him inside his own processor, he did want to try.
Firestorm, he knew well, held younglings every chance she got. And she was clearly good at it too, because most of them seemed to love her. But Soundwave had never even looked at a newborn youngling bot before, and he stiffened instantly, the second Speedbreaker placed her child into his arms, because he feared at once that he might just drop her. The baby, in turn began to fuss at once, and Soundwave feared perhaps she did not like him in the least, and may well even have been terrified of him. But watching Firestorm with the baby's twin, watching as she held him lightly, he loosened his own hold on the one he held, watching as she stopped her fussing at once, and smiled at him, whirring and buzzing, and grabbing for his fingertips.
Soundwave grinned then in return, just as much as he possibly could, as he stared in wonder at the youngling, who was just one of many destined to be born on the new world be could help with rebuilding.
"You make that look so easy," a voice said, behind him, right along with a friendly chuckling laugh. And Soundwave was, uncharacteristically, startled from his thoughts because. He turned around slowly, the baby bot still in his arms, to meet the increasingly familiar form of Ultra Magnus face plate to face-plate.
"Walk with me a moment, Soundwave," the blue painted police-bot said. And his voice was firm, but not at all unkind, as he reached out to almost smack Soundwave on the shoulder panel, but never did quite touch him. He sipped casually from the container filled with home brew high grade he held in his hand, without even blinking. Soundwave just nodded his agreement, uncertain of exactly was expected of him, and uneasy because of it. And it was with surprising reluctance, that he handed Speedbreaker's tiny youngling back to her.
"I wanted to personally congratulate you," the police-bot said, just a second later, as the two of them walked alone along the outer edge of the common room, heading toward the doors leading out. "I've been a loyal and active Autobot for centuries. You know I was a front line soldier before I came home to lead the law enforcement division... I never thought I'd see this day, Soundwave. You, loyal to our side, truly renouncing Decepticon ideals."
"I meant what I said that day, sitting in that cell downtown," Soundwave answered thoughtfully. And he tried not to think too hard of what it was he was saying exactly, because he understood more then ever now, all too well, that that would only lead to frustration and a processor conflict with his own language programming. "This is exactly what I really want."
"During your initiation, you will be asked why," Ultra Magnus reminded him, clearly meaning only to be helpful. The common room doors slid open, and the two of them stepped out into the corridor, and away from the noise and the crowd inside the room. "Knockout will likely repeat the one he prepared for himself years ago, at least roughly so. Have to decided on the wording of your own yet?" The police-bot though held up a hand, before Soundwave could answer. And he gave another slight chuckle, under his intakes. "You don't need to tell me. Not today. I'll hear your answer at you initiation, right along with everyone else."
"You are attending then I would assume?" Soundwave questioned. And he realized only after held finished his question, just how hopeful his voice had sounded. This bot was one he had come to respect greatly. And to understand that he may indeed attend gave him some sense of relief somehow.
"I can't imagine missing it," Ultra Magnus said, smiling with something that looked suspiciously like pride.
He killed his drink then, finishing at least half of a container of the stuff at once. And then he simply stashed the now empty container in his storage compartment, and stood up even straighter for a second, before he gave a good loud laugh.
"I spent years of my career commanding the Wreckers," he said, without another much quieter laugh. "You better believe I learned well over those years, to drink their near toxic sludge they call a great time, just as well as any one of them!"
"I've never been one to enjoy... intoxicating substances very much at all," Soundwave admitted slowly. And he stumbled over the words just the slightest bit, because the very subject of drinking was not one that came up for him enough for his processor to have familiarized itself with the words for such a thing. The blue police-bot just chuckled again.
"Prob'ly for the best I should think," he remarked, with a hint of a nod.
"I wonder, Soundwave," he said, after a very brief silence. "Have you ever considered a career in law enforcement?"
"No... Sir," Soundwave stumbled just a little more now, mostly with simply trying to work out exactly how to address this bot in the first place. And he startled a little more still, at the question.
"I can easily see it's certainly a little far from your... err... previous work experiences," Ultra Magnus answered. An again he expended a hand to very close to Soundwave's shoulder, but never touched his armour. "You were always a computer and coding bot – with a sub specialty in infiltration of course. But you are building a good reputation around the city for your fearlessness and skill in hand to hand combat and take downs. You are more than capable of protecting the innocent of this growing city. Those skills once learned in the worst of the world's fighting pits can certain do some real good in this new world of ours. I have no doubt at all, I could use a bot just like you on the portal force."
"I..." Soundwave just stammered horribly in his confusion, because he could not image what it was he should say next. "Thank you, Sir... for..."
"Think on it a while," Ultra Magnus said. And he smiled a little again with assurance clear in his optics. "Don't don't be a stranger. You knew where to find me downtown if you ever wanna chat a while."
Soundwave just nodded.
Several days later
Wheeeeeeee..." Cybershock yelled just a bit too loudly in the middle of her family's apartment living room. She spun around in constant circles, balanced on her feet, with her arms out beside her, while she laughed happily.
"Cybershock," said Arcee, her concern more than clear. "You are going to fall right on your tail pipe, if you keep that up."
"I won't fall down, Mama," the youngling answered laughing. "I never fall." She just went on spinning, and Arcee just shook her head.
"What did you put in our kid's energon this evening?" Arcee asked her bondmate, mostly joking, while he sat on his cart beside the sofa she was on. He simply shrugged in response, and to Arcee's great dismay, he was himself spinning around right along with their youngling not a second later – his hand on the control, pushing the cart steadily to the right so that it kept up a spin instead of moving forward.
"The question now..." Arcee muttered to herself, chuckling, while she stood to pick up discarded holovid left laying on the floor, "is who convinced who first that, that spinning around endlessly in the middle of my living room would possibly be such great fun..."
"Cybershock," Knockout exclaimed, laughing like a youngling bot himself. "Switch directions for a while. Now we've gotta go the other way!" He was instantly pushing left now on his hand control. And Cybershock, pausing just a moment, stumbling badly after having clearly only just then realized she had made herself dizzy, began to slowly spin around the other way as well, before quickly picking up speed.
"Silly bots," Arcee mumbled, under her intakes, with another shake of her head just watching them both another second, and secretly glad as anything that neither one of them begged her to join in their silliness.
She wandered slowly then out to the entryway of the apartment, where she set to work polishing chrome surfaces of her home, tidying up here and there and quickly a few energon containers into a small sanitzer in the corner of a counter underneath a small red curtained window. She reached up then, to pull the curtains open, and stood for a moment, looking out at a pair of vehicle modes, clearly engaged in some illegal racing down 'main street' far below. She chuckled just slightly, shook her head over young bots having downtown, and tossed the rag in her hand, into the sanatizer along with the containers, making sure to place it below the bottom rack.
When she turned back around again, after starting the machine, Knockout was behind her, watching her with a smile on his face-plate. And he was standing now, leaning forward just a little on the handlebars of his walking frame, and holding himself up like that with some apparent strength.
"I put a holovid on for Cybershock to watch," he said. "That strange little kid's science show from Earth she loves so much. She is... a bit tired now from all that spinning..."
"You two are equally ridiculous you know," Arcee told him, smiling in his direction. "Her tendency toward such ridiculous behaviour... it came from your part in her coding."
"I retain the right to plead no contest." Knockout smirked. And he took a small slow step forward, leaning on the walking frame he held onto in front of him. "And you can't say your life here with us isn't interesting."
"That I certainly can't," Arcee replied, with another smile and a laugh, before the sound of their youngling rummaging far too loudly through her toy box, pulled her from her thoughts. The toy Cybershock selected to play with, was, as luck would have it, the noisiest of any she owned. And her small feet stomped a little on the floor, as she rushed around the living room, excitedly again busy in loud play with the thing.
"You're still so sure you really want another one?" Knockout asked, turning just as much as he could without losing his balance while standing up, so that he could look vaguely in the direction of their child a room away. He asked the question in a tone of doubt. But Arcee knew full well his doubt was far from real by now. He was just as in love with the idea of a second youngling as she was by then. And he talked about it just as much as she did... even day dreaming out loud about any names that might sound good along side 'Cybershock,' and where they might set up the youngling basket once again.
"Just as sure as anything," Arcee said, her tone self assured, while she walked a few steps to stand closer to him. And she looked him over, smiling a little.
"It's so great to see you on your feet so much now," she told him, smiling brighter. "You're standing so much straighter too. I'd almost forgotten how tall you actually are."
"Spending time on my feet just as much as I can, is the only way I'll ever make real gains now," Knockout reminded her, smiling back. "Just like Ratchet always says... practice practice, because practice makes perfect."
Arcee took another step toward her bondmate, and slowly reached out, arms extended, and ready to hug him. But then she stopped again, pausing right in mid-motion, and looked at him, uncertain.
"Can I?" she asked, concerned she might easily knock him off balance and cause him to fall. It wads after all, still not difficult to do, and he still fell too often without anyone causing it at all But he simply nodded, a slight laugh coming from under his intakes at once.
"Of course you can," he said, and he chuckled once again. "Just don't make a running start... like some much smaller bot of ours seems to..."
"Can you let go of the walking frame at all yet?" Arcee questioned slowly, once she'd gently put her arms around him, and let her head rest against the front of his body, without him moving to hug her back.
"Maybe..." he mumbled, thoughtlessly and happy, in reply. "Kind of... for just a second or two..."
Knockout had never yet tried to let go at all before. And he knew he certainly could not come close to lifting both hands from his handlebars completely with any hope at all of standing that way. But he did lean slightly more onto his right side, his stranger arm managing to hold him balanced, while he slowly lifted the left away from the bar just enough to wrap the arm hesitantly around his mate's body.
"Do you think you may be carrying already, as we speak?" he asked her, changing the topic of discussion back to the one they'd strayed from. She she shook her head slightly without even lifting it off his armour.
"I was scanned just this morning," she said. And her tone was suddenly a little sad then. "Negative for any new spark again..."
"We haven't been actively trying for long yet," Knockout reminded her, confidently. "We just need to keep on spark merging often with our inhibitors in their off settings..." he paused then, let go of her so he could hold onto the frame with both hands again, because he was about to lose his balance, and grinned at him when she moved to look at him in concern. "It isn't as though we aren't having fun with exactly that."
"That we certainly do."
"I almost forgot," Knockout muttered slowly. And he shook his head over his own carelessness, before he took several slow, careful steps with the walking frame toward the cabinet closest to the apartment door, right next to the energon dispenser. With some hesitation he let go of the frame, again with one hand, so that he could pull open a drawer. And finally he pulled out a datapad he'd stashed inside.
"Ultra Mangus dropped this off today, not long before you got back from work," he explained. And too tired out to keep on standing like he was, he sat himself down carefully, in a chair turned sideways next to their small table, still holding the pad in his hand. "It pertains to Switchblade's case file." He paused then, shook his head quickly and muttered... "well the bot Known as Switchblade for now's case file anyway. She wants to change her name... made it clear on the ward today she won't answer to her old name anymore. And the kid means business too. I have no idea if it's good news or bad in here..." he held up the data pad again
"I'm not sure I really wanna know.." Arcee mumbled right back. She took the pad from her mate, but instead of powering it on right away, she just stood, staring at it, and sadly shaking her head.
Arcee had promised that youngling she would find a permanent home for her. And the promise of that had seemed easy enough to fulfill. That hope however had been proven wrong in a hurry and finally all but dashed entirely, when the weeks wore into into nearly two long months without a single application from an interested bot. She and Knockout had discussed, at ever increasing length, that they might just take the little one themselves, as they did after all, want to expand their own family. But that was conflict of interest, and both of them know it. While not technically illegal, they both knew it just seemed wrong... or at least it was while hope still remained of some other option.
The news, she reminded herself quickly, could not possibly be all that bad. The youngling after all, could not exactly be removed from the care of the Autobot military until she had a home to go to. And it was certain not related to her health and condition, because that was Knockout's department. And he would have of course simply told her himself, if he'd had bad news about all that. With a slow intake, and a little shake of her head, Arcee powered on the pad in her hands. And for a moment she just stood, blinking after she'd read over it twice.
"It's an application to adopt," she said, her hands slightly shaky because she couldn't believe what it was she was reading on the pad. She leaned forward a little, moving to set the pad down on the counter top. But she changed her mind again, and just held it, absently, while she stood, shaking her head in disbelief. She finally looked at it again, reading the short document a third time, because she was almost sure she'd ready something wrong in the simply lines of code. "Submitted this morning by... Bulkhead."
"Is that so truly shocking to you?" Knockout asked. His tone was too casual and his question was surprising.
"Well... yes..." Arcee just mumbled back. Confusion, surprise, uncertainty and shock circled through her processor all at once, and she just shook her head again. She finally set the pad down. And for a second she stood staring at it, still questioning its contents, in her own processor.
"If you could just see them together as much as I do," Knockout answered, still collected and clearly understanding far better than his still shocked mate did. "Talking to each other on the youngling ward... Bulk's visited her every day for over a month. He's become the family she lost and probably never had at all. He's held her on his lap more than once for scans and energon tests... let her cry and be sad... sat reading to her until she falls into recharge... Bulkhead loves that youngling, just as though she was his own." Knockout gestured with his optics toward the pad left on the counter top. "There's sure no doubt left about that now... To give her to some other bot to raise now, that might just break his poor spark."
"I love Bulk' like a big protective brother," Arcee mused, still shaken. "He's got enough spark for us all. But I never dreamed I'd ever see that big clumsy brute on the playground with a youngling of his own..."
"He's already begging me to give the youngling an afternoon pass away from the hospital so he can take her there to play for a while. I told him she's got one for tomorrow."
Instead of any answer at all, to her mate's last comment, Arcee found herself suddenly laughing, as she remembered watching the little green bot, balanced well on Bulk's huge feet while he danced with her at Soundwave's initiation party. She remembered so perfectly the joyful smile clear across the youngling bot's face-plate, and the look of happiness on Bulkhead's as he so willingly made a silly fool of himself just to make the little youngling laugh. There was far more than that to raising and caring for a youngling bot. Arcee knew that first hand now, and far better and anybot that had never been a parent would ever hope to understand. But it was a start and certainly a good one.
"I'll comm Bulk tomorrow," she said seriously. "I need to invite him in for a formal meeting."